Chapter 15: What I Did Before Breakfast

Wes's POV

I did not sleep.

Nora slept in the big bedroom with the lock turned.

I lay on the boathouse cot with my boots on and watched the window go gray.

At five I gave up and walked down to the dock.

The boards were wet with dew.

I stood at the end where she had sat for seven hours nine years ago.

I tried to think the way I think about a dam.

Find the failure. Find the load. Fix what can be fixed before the water comes.

It is the only way I know how to be afraid.

Her phone had lit up on the kitchen counter the afternoon before.

I had read the text over her shoulder.

You should have stayed on the dock.

I hadn't said anything.

The number had a Chicago area code, and I had the digits by heart before she turned the screen face down.

I took my phone out of my pocket.

I knew that what I was about to do was wrong, and I knew I was going to do it anyway.

Lacey had reached her mother first.

She had been reaching people first for ten years.

If I waited for a clean plan, the bride would be the only version of this story that woman ever heard.

I dialed.

It rang three times, and a crisp voice said, "Who is this?"

"Wes Calder. Josh's brother. The one who answered you in the kitchen yesterday."

"I know who you are."

"I'm going to tell you something plainly, and you can hang up when I'm done."

"You have a minute."

"Nine years ago your daughter used Nora's phone to tell me to stay away from her."

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